Improvement in advertising



'UNITED STATES PATEN Frio BYRON s. HOWARD, oF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN ADVERTISING.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 187,139, dated February6, 1877 application iiled August 18, 1876.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, BYRON S. HOWARD, of.

the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new andImproved Advertising- Sign, of which the following is a full, clear, andaccurate description, enabling others to practice my invention, whentaken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in Which- Figure Iis a front elevation. Fig. II is a sectional view thereof, showing themechanism 5 Fig. III, a cross-section on the line a b of Fig. I.

My invention relates to advertising-signs adapted for exhibition instreet-cars or other moving vehicles, and is adapted to be used on ferryor other boats; and has for its object the combining or arranging of ashow-card, bearing certain names, tigures, directions, 85o., with.

one or more moving acrobatic figures ot'men or animals, the figuresbeing arranged to be moved or oscillated by the `jolting or jumpingoccasioned by the ordinary inequalities experienced by a car or othervehicle while in motion.

In the space in a Streetcar hired by the advertiser, I place an ordinaryframe, A, but deeper than is generally used, as is seen at Fig. III. Thet'ront ot' this frame may be protected by a sheet of glass, d. Behindthis glass d, if glass is used, I place my show-card G, having upon itany desired names, direc-- tions. &c. lt will be noticed that O does notll up the entire frame, but leaves a space at either end ofthe frame.Ifit is desired, C may be divided, and may occupy either end of the caseor frame, leaving a space Vin the middle; but the construction which Ihave shown in the drawing is the best. In the spaces left in either endof the frame I place figures of men, Women, animals, 85o., as at h andh', these gures being fastened to the end ot' iiexible wires e and e',the other end of the wires being attached to the inside of the frame atj' and j. These wires e and e may be of brass or steel. Theirflexibility should depend upon the Weight of the figures h and h', thewires heilig sufiiciently stii' to keep the figures freely suspended inthe center of the space. The gures h and h are attached by their backsto the wire, and are painted in bright colors, and

may be arranged with strings to their legs, so that when the figuresfall` their legs will appear to kick up, or the arms or other parts maybe attached by strings to the frame, so that .the

parts thus attached will appear to perform the actions of living bodies.Horses or other animals may be arranged in substantially the samemanner, and they will appear to perform characteristic actions. The backof the inside of the frame A should be blackened, forming an appropriatebackground to show off' the ligures h and h; also, such portions ot' theWires e and e', as are seen between the figures and the ends oftheshow-card C, so that they will not show against the black background.

1t is evident that Wires of other forms and shapes may be usedv insteadof e and e-i'or example, spiral springs, part of' which can be concealedbehind the show-card O.

My advertisingsign, thus prepared, consists of a show-card within aframe larger -than the card, leaving spaces in which acrobatic tiguresare suspended, is now placed in its appropriate position in a ferry orother boat, or in a street-car or other vehicle, and, as the boat orvehicle is moved or drawn along, the jolting and jarring will cause thefigures to dance or oscillate so long as the movement of the vehiclecontinues, the attention of the passengers will be attracted by thedancing or movement of the iigures, and they will thus be led to readthe inscription upon the showcard.

It will be noticed that the advertising-sign of my invention depends forits value upon the jolting motion of the vehicle to which it isattached, as no method can be used to oscillate the figures, exceptingthat ot' shaking the case.

Acrobatic figures are old, but combining them With a show-card foradvertising purposes, so as to attract the `attention of the passengers,the whole adapted to be placed in some moving vehicle, the inequalitiesot' the motion of which will set the figures dancing, and make myadvertising-sign, as a whole, effective, is new and unknown before myinvention thereof.

Aorobatic ligures have been made to move by the finger acting upon thespring to which they are attached, or by some clock-work mechanism,which could take the place ofthe operators finger. In these cases thefigures were employed solely as a source of amusement in themselves, andnot in conjunction 2. A frame containing a show-card, in comwith otherthingsfor examplefa-show or' ad- -bination with ione Eormore'ac'robal'tic "figures vertising card-t0 which they draw attention,lsuspemledtheren by springs, constructed-end an' v'ithout which thegures are meaningless. operated as described.

c annl. The combination, iu an advertisingsign, Witnesses: of ashow-card and one or more suspended acrobatic figures, substantially asdescribed.

B. S. HOWARD.

- H. L. BREVOOR'T,

G. G. FRELINGHUYSEN.

